Plukenet, Leonard

, a celebrated English botanist,
was born, as he himself has recorded, in 1642, but where
he was educated, or in what university he received his
degrees, has. not been ascertained. It has been conjectured, from a few circumstances, that it was at Cambridge.
His name seems of French extraction, plus que net, and has
been Latinized plus quam nitidus. He dates the prefaces
to his works from Old Palace-yard, Westminster, where
he seems to have had a small garden. It does not appear
| that he attained to any considerable eminence in his profession of phjsic, and it is suspected he was only an apothecary, but he was absorbed in the study of plants, and
devoted all his leisure to the composition of his “Phytographia.” He spared no pains to procure specimens of
rare and new plants, had correspondents in all parts of the
world, and access to the gardens of Hampton-court, then
Very flourishing, and all others that were curious. PIukenet was one of those to whom Ray was indebted for assistance in the arrangement of the second volume of his
history, and that eminent man every where bears the
strongest testimony to his merit. Yet he was in want of
patronage, and felt that want severely. With Sloane and
Petiver, two of the first botanists of his own age, he seems
to have been at variance, and censures their writings with
too much asperity. “Plukenet,” says sir J. E. Smith,
whose opinion in such matters we are always happy to
follow, “was, apparently, a man of more solid learning
than either of those distinguished writers, and having been
less prosperous than either, he was perhaps less disposed
to palliate their errors. As far as we have examined, his
criticisms, however severe, are not unjust.” No obstacles
damped the ardour of Plukenet in his favourite pursuit.
He was himself at the charge of his engravings, and printed
the whole work at his own expence, with the exception
of a small subscription of about fifty-five guineas, which
he obtained near the conclusion of it. Towards the close
of his life he is said to have been assisted by the queen,
and to have obtained the superintendance of the garden at
Hampton-court. He was also honoured with the title of
royal professor of botany. The time of his decease is not
precisely ascertained, but it is probable that he did not
long survive his last publication, which appeared in 1705.
His works were, 1. “Phytographia, sive stirpium illustrium
et minus cognitorum Icones,” 1691—1696, published in
four parts, and containing 328 plates, in 4to. 2. “Almagestum Botanicum, sive Phytographiae Piukenetianae Onornasticon,” &c. 1696, 4to the catalogue is alphabetical, and
contains near 6000 species, of which, he tells us, 500 were
new. No man, after Caspar Bauhine, had till then examined the ancient authors with so much attention as he
did, that he might settle his synonyms with accuracy. He
follows no system. 3. “Almagesti Botanici Mantissa,”
1700, 4to, with twenty-five new plates. Besides many
| new plants, this volume contains very numerous additions
to the synonyms of the Almagestum. 4. Five years after
the Mantissa he published the “Amaltheum Botanicum,”
with three plates, 4to. It abounds with new subjects, sent
from China and the East Indies, with some from Florida.
These works of Plukenet contain upwards of 2740 figures,
most of them engraved from dried specimens, and many
from small sprigs, destitute of flowers, or any parts of
fructification, and consequently not to be ascertained: but
several of these, as better specimens came to hand, are
figured again in the subsequent plates. As he employed a
variety of artists, they are unequally executed; those by
Vander Gucht have usually the preference. It is much
to be regretted that he had it not in his power to give his
figures on a larger scale yet, with all their imperfections,
these publications form a large treasure of botanical knowledge. The herbarium of Plukenet consisted of 8000
plants, an astonishing number to be collected by a private and not opulent individual: it came, after his death,
into the hands of sir Hans Sloane, and is now in the British
museum. His works were republished, with new titlepages, in 1720, and entirely reprinted, with some additions, in 1769; and in 1779 an Index Linnaeanus to his
plates were published by Dr. Giseke, of Hamburgh, which
contains a few notes, from a ms. left by Plukenet. The
original ms. of Plukenet’s works is now in the library of
sir J. E. Smith, president of the Linnaean society. Plumier, to be mentioned in the next article, complimented
this learned botanist by giving his name to a plant, a native of both Indies. 1

This text has been generated using commercial OCR software,
and there are still many problems; it is slowly getting better
over time.
The text was scanned and OCRd several times, and
a majority version of each line of text was chosen.
Please don't reuse the content
(e.g. do not post to wikipedia)
without asking liam
at holoweb dot net first (mention the colour of your socks in the mail),
because I am still working on fixing errors.
Thanks!